New England mom Denise Towne wasn't sure what to do about child care for her baby, until her company invited her to keep her little one by her side from 9 to 5.

When Denise Towne packed her hiking boots and moved from upstate New York to Vermont after graduating high school, she couldn't wait to lose herself in the beautiful scenery, the hiking trails, and all the opportunities to go snowboarding. But it quickly dawned on Denise, now 38, who lives in the tiny town of Cabot, that the sports-lover's paradise she'd chosen was also a great place to raise a family. "Everywhere you go, you see a friendly face," she explains. "Living in a small town is like having an extended family — everyone watches out for everyone else's kids."

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By the time Denise got married to Steve, a high school teacher, and was expecting her first child, in 2002, she had also found what she considered the perfect job: As production manager at the children's clothing company Zutano, Denise oversees work being done in facilities as far away as Macao, all from her office in a converted barn surrounded by maple trees. It's the kind of low-key office where coworkers feel like family, the owners bring their dogs to work with them, and their daughters stop by after school to visit, Denise explains.

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But Denise's rural idyll almost came crashing down around her when she began exploring child care. "Staying home was not an option — our family needed both salaries to pay the mortgage on the house we had just bought — and we couldn't afford a full-time nanny, so I just assumed I'd put the baby in day care," she explains. But the only day care in Cabot was completely full, and the next closest ones were in Montpelier, a 45-minute drive away. "I wanted to be able to pop in and see my baby during the day," Denise says. "I couldn't stand the thought of being so far away from him."

Denise tried to hide her anxiety from Michael and Uli Belenky, Zutano's owners, but they must have known, she admits. The Belenkys, it turns out, already had a solution in mind: They asked Denise if she would consider bringing her baby to work with her. "They said I could bring him for up to a year, but if it didn't work out, we would end it earlier," Denise explains.

"I couldn't imagine how it would work"

Denise was intrigued by the idea, but she wasn't sold on it right away. "I couldn't imagine how I would make it work," she admits. "What if the baby cried? What if I had to nurse in the middle of a meeting?" Even more worrisome to her was how her coworkers would react. "I was the first person at the company to try this, and I was afraid everyone would resent me for it. Would the people who didn't have babies think I was getting special treatment? Would they be mad at me if the baby was disruptive or the office smelled like dirty diapers?" So before she said yes, she went around and asked each of her coworkers if they were really, truly okay with the idea. Not only were they okay with it, Denise reports, but they were genuinely excited. "We're a children's clothing company, after all," she says with a laugh. "Having a baby around to model all the clothes for photo shoots was actually a bonus!"

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So 10 weeks after her son, Patrick, was born, Denise bundled him up and brought him to her office, which had been outfitted with a crib and changing table. Working with a newborn next to her desk was easier than she expected. "He would spend the day either sleeping or nursing," Denise recalls. There were a few embarrassing moments, of course — loud diaper explosions in the middle of a staff meeting; the time a FedEx guy visibly blanched when she opened her shirt to nurse. Denise says she quickly got into the habit of plopping Patrick in the stroller and taking him out for a walk to cool off as soon as he got fussy — which was fairly often. Still, Patrick soon became a beloved office mascot. "If someone just needed a pick-me-up, they would stop by my office to see the baby, and they'd always end up leaving with a smile," Denise says.

"I actually wound up working more"

While the situation at work was great, Denise admits that it caused a few problems at home. "I actually wound up working more hours in the office, which took away from time with my husband," she says. "If Patrick napped at 5, I wasn't going to wake him up to take him home. I would just stay and pump out more work. Then I'd get these calls from Steve asking when I was coming home for dinner." And while she appreciated the 24/7 time with her baby, it could be draining, too. "When I came home, I would just want to hand the baby over to Steve and get some downtime."

Still, experiencing her baby's first steps and seeing his first tooth come in were well worth any sacrifice. Not to mention the hours of stress in the morning she was able to eliminate. "If I had to pump or pack up formula and then drive 45 minutes each way to drop him at day care, it would have been exhausting," Denise says. Instead, she spent a leisurely morning nursing, then drove to the office, just five minutes away.

As Patrick got more active toward his first birthday, crawling every which way and stuffing important papers into his mouth, Denise knew it was time for him to move on. "At that point I started realizing that he needed more interaction than he could get just hanging out in my office," she explains. Luckily, by that time, a former Zutano employee had opened a home day care nearby, and Patrick was the first baby to enroll.

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Zutano has since made "Babies at Work" an official company policy, and over the last seven years, 18 other babies — including Denise's daughters, Lauren, 5, and Morgan, 18 months — have come to work with their moms (and one dad). The company has even begun "Doggy Days" so employees who don't have children can bring their furry loved ones to work occasionally too. When Denise was looking for a new assistant a few months ago, she found the perfect candidate — who just happened to be seven months pregnant. "It'll be nice to have another baby in the office!" she says, laughing. Denise's three children are now in school and day care, but she says that the program has profoundly influenced how they view their mother's work. "It's surprising how much my kids remember and how close they feel to my coworkers," she says. "It makes it so much easier for them to understand why I go to work every day. They really understand what I do and why I love it."

How to get babies on board at your job

Zutano is just one of more than 150 companies, including state agencies in Kansas and Arizona, that have babies-at-work policies. If you think this plan might work at your company, follow these tips from Carla Moquin, founder of the Parenting in the Workplace Institute::

Ask yourself: Is it really doable? Consider whether having a baby around will truly mesh with your job. Safety is key, so if you work in a factory, you're probably out of luck — though you can ask to be moved to a desk job temporarily, Moquin says. Also, if you frequently work off-site or meet with clients all day long, consider whether there's an option to stay in one place.

Go in with a plan. Once you've figured out whether it can work for you, approach your boss with a solid plan for launching a babies-at-work program. Download a detailed list of business benefits — such as moms' taking shorter maternity leaves — and a template for a company policy from babiesatwork.org.

Suggest a two-week trial run. "It's much easier to get someone to agree to this plan if they don't feel pressured to sticking with it if doesn't work," Moquin says. The first days will be rough for everyone, she notes, but don't give up right away. "Once you and the baby get into a rhythm, work days will become easier."